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Facebook Is 'Teeming' With Fake Accounts Created By Undercover Cops (nbcnews.com)
An anonymous reader quotes NBC News:
Police officers around the country, in departments large and small, working for federal, state and local agencies, use undercover Facebook accounts to watch protesters, track gang members, lure child predators and snare thieves, according to court records, police trainers and officers themselves. Some maintain several of these accounts at a time. The tactic violates Facebook's terms of use, and the company says it disables fake accounts whenever it discovers them. But that is about all it can do: Fake accounts are not against the law, and the information gleaned by the police can be used as evidence in criminal and civil cases. Investigators know this, which is why the accounts continue to flourish.
"Every high-tech crime unit has one," said an officer who uses an undercover account to monitor gang members and drug dealers in New Jersey and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid having the account exposed or shut down. "It's not uncommon, but we don't like to talk about it too much." The proliferation of fake Facebook accounts and other means of social media monitoring -- including the use of software to crunch data about people's online activity -- illustrates a policing "revolution" that has allowed authorities to not only track people but also map out their networks, said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice....
Judges in New Jersey and Delaware have upheld investigators' use of fake social media profiles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Cincinnati Police Department and the Chicago Police Department have publicly boasted of using undercover Facebook accounts in cases against accused child predators, gangs and gun traffickers. Following an outcry after a Drug Enforcement Administration agent created a fake Facebook account in a suspect's name to catch members of a drug ring, the Department of Justice promised in 2014 to review the agency's policies -- but the department did not respond to multiple requests to say what has changed. Several law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, have policies that explicitly allow the creation of fake profiles, with some conditions -- including obtaining prior approval from a superior and limiting interactions with targets.... [P]olice agencies have been able to keep undercover accounts for years without Facebook discovering them.
After one successful ACLU lawsuit this August, a Memphis activist discovered that his local police department had assembled 22,000 pages about him and his friends.
"Every high-tech crime unit has one," said an officer who uses an undercover account to monitor gang members and drug dealers in New Jersey and who spoke on the condition of anonymity to avoid having the account exposed or shut down. "It's not uncommon, but we don't like to talk about it too much." The proliferation of fake Facebook accounts and other means of social media monitoring -- including the use of software to crunch data about people's online activity -- illustrates a policing "revolution" that has allowed authorities to not only track people but also map out their networks, said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, senior counsel at New York University School of Law's Brennan Center for Justice....
Judges in New Jersey and Delaware have upheld investigators' use of fake social media profiles. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Cincinnati Police Department and the Chicago Police Department have publicly boasted of using undercover Facebook accounts in cases against accused child predators, gangs and gun traffickers. Following an outcry after a Drug Enforcement Administration agent created a fake Facebook account in a suspect's name to catch members of a drug ring, the Department of Justice promised in 2014 to review the agency's policies -- but the department did not respond to multiple requests to say what has changed. Several law enforcement agencies, including the New York Police Department, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and the Indiana Intelligence Fusion Center, have policies that explicitly allow the creation of fake profiles, with some conditions -- including obtaining prior approval from a superior and limiting interactions with targets.... [P]olice agencies have been able to keep undercover accounts for years without Facebook discovering them.
After one successful ACLU lawsuit this August, a Memphis activist discovered that his local police department had assembled 22,000 pages about him and his friends.
"Criminal impersonation is a crime that is governed by states laws, which vary by state. It may involve, among other acts:
"(1) assuming a false identity with the intent to defraud another; (2) pretending to be a representative of another person or organization; or (3) opening a bank account or securing credit in the name of another person without the other person's consent.
"The following is an example of a state statute dealing with criminal impersonation:
"(1) A person commits criminal impersonation if he knowingly assumes a false or fictitious identity or capacity, and in such identity or capacity he: (d) Does an act which if done by the person falsely impersonated, might subject such person to an action or special proceeding, civil or criminal, or to liability, charge, forfeiture, or penalty; or (e) Does any other act with intent to unlawfully gain a benefit for himself or another or to injure or defraud another".
https://definitions.uslegal.co...
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